


Never Simple

by Masu_Trout



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Barret is a Good Father, Family, Gen, Introspection, Parent-Child Relationship, Post-Canon, Treat, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 22:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4937119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/pseuds/Masu_Trout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>There were nights that Barret had left Marlene in the basement of Seventh Heaven and not known whether he'd ever see her again.</i>
</p><p>Parenting is hard. Barret does his best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Simple

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cricket_aria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cricket_aria/gifts).



The pendant was warm in Barret's hand.

He'd traced his fingers along the pressed metal D so many times he was in danger of wearing the gold coating off. He could have mapped the grooves of it in his sleep. 

It never got any easier. Some part of him—the idiot part—had been hoping for a divine revelation. Dyne and Eleanor, riding the Lifestream, coming down to shout some sense into his stupid head.

 _Get your ass in gear, already!_ he could imagine the two of them saying. _Stop wasting time!_

Barret snorted and muttered a curse under his breath.

The problem wasn't that he didn't know what to do; Marlene deserved to hear about her first set of parents, the ones she would have had if not for Shinra's interference. He owed her that much and more.

The problem was that Marlene was a kid. A smart, wonderful little girl, with maturity beyond her years, but still just a kid. If he tried to tell her the truth--

_Hey, Marlene, you know the dad you never met? Well, he went goddamn crazy and killed a bunch of people, and then he tried to kill me. He wanted you dead too, but instead he threw his fool self off a cliff. Here's a necklace._

No way. Marlene had enough nightmares already. He didn't need to be adding to them.

At the same time, though... to tell her a lie, no matter how nice it was, would just be cruel. Marlene had heard the screaming crash as the plate fell and she'd seen Midgar crumble under Meteor's wrath. She'd watched as her father's friends—Biggs, Wedge, Jesse, Aerith—set out one day and never came back. There were nights he'd left her in the basement of Seventh Heaven and not known whether he'd ever see her again.

“Shit,” Barret sighed. If Dyne had known how badly he'd handled everything else, maybe he wouldn't have been so quick to hand this off to him. 

He wished Myrna were here. Hell, he wished this was something he could foist off on Tifa. She was the one who'd taught Marlene how to braid her hair and tie her shoes, all the things that Barret couldn't do anymore or simply had never bothered to learn. If anyone would know how to walk the line between worthless lie and brutal truth, it would be her.

But... Corel was his history. Dyne's history. Marlene's history too, even if she didn't know it yet. He couldn't leave this to anyone else.

Barret nodded, steeling his courage, and rapped his metal arm lightly against the door to Marlene's bedroom.

It swung open a moment later as Marlene dashed into his arms. “Daddy!” 

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said, pulling her into a hug. She was getting so, so tall. Did all kids grow this fast? 

She smiled up at him, gap-toothed and innocent, and he felt his heart tremble in his ribcage. Why couldn't parenting ever be easy?

“Marlene,” he said softly. The pendant's chain was still wrapped around the fingers; he pressed his thumb against the raised letter once more, praying to everyone he'd lost. _Give me strength, give me luck. Help me raise her right._ “I've got something I want to talk to you about, all right?”


End file.
